Safer With A Ghost | Simon "Ghost" Riley

Chapter 10

Ghost paced the living room, growing more impatient as time passed. Rudy had worked on Ivy's wounds while Valeria assisted. Her small body was covered in burns, bruises, cuts that varied in severity, and she lost a significant amount of weight.

Valeria's POV

After Rudy had cleaned off the blood from her skin, they began tending to her wounds, after giving her a light sedative. Valeria hated seeing her friend this way, "Pobre cosa." Rudy nodded as he furrowed his brows before he spoke softly, "I don't know how she survived that long." "She's strong." Valeria's voice cracked; tears slowly filled her eyes. She blinked her tears away. "Valeria..." she looked up at him, "hm?" Rudy hesitated, "did she say if we could check for..." He sighed, his voice trembled, and he took a deep breath to keep the tears at bay, "for assault lacerations?" Valeria's voice hitches, "Yeah she did, said it was okay." Rudy nodded as he looked at Ivy, "We have to wake her up." Rudy gave her medicine through her IV to wake her up. Valeria gently shook Ivy, "Ivy, mija, can you hear me?" Ivy stirred, slowly opening her eyes, groaning in pain. "Come on babe, you gotta wake up." She attempted to sit up when Valeria gently stopped her. "don't move, you have stitches." Ivy looked up at Valeria then Rudy. "Where's Ghost?" Rudy responded softly, "He's downstairs, we have to finish before he comes up." Ivy nodded and winched in pain. Valeria's voice was soft and calm, "Ivy we have to check for assault injuries. Are you ready?" Ivy began to sob and shook her head. "I know, babe, I can't imagine what you've been through." Valeria rubbed her hairline gently with her gloved hand. "We have to make sure you aren't bleeding." Ivy nodded, "can you hold my hand Rudy?" "of course, mija." Rudy moved to the head of the bed and grabbed Ivy's hand gently and looked in her eyes, "It's gonna be uncomfortable but she'll be fast, okay?" Ivy nodded again. "Ready, mi novia?" "Y-yeah." Ivy's voice was tired and shaky. Valeria began to check her for wounds. The sensation sent Ivy into a sobbing frenzy. "I'm almost done." Valeria said through her own tears. Rudy squeezed Ivy's hand softly and hugged her head fighting tears as well. Valeria backed away after finishing and walked out of the room. Rudy held Ivy's head until she calmed down. Once she was calm, Rudy followed Valeria into the hall. "Valeria..." "ese hijo de puta esta muerto." Valeria started to go downstairs before Rudy grabbed her. "Don't tell him yet, let him see her and give them a moment. Then we can tell him." Valeria glared at him and sighed defeatedly, "Fine.. I'll go get him." Rudy followed Valeria downstairs.

Ghost's POV

Hearing footsteps coming down the stairs, Ghost turned around quickly to see Valeria and Rudy. "How is she?" Ghost asked, his voice full of worry. Rudy spoke gently, "She's okay. She lost a lot of weight, has a lot of wounds and bruises. She looks different, and she's been through hell, but she'll pull through. She's awake if you want to see her." Ghost patted Rudy's shoulder and went to go upstairs before Valeria spoke, "We can talk about her condition more when you come down." Her voice was soft, but Ghost could tell something was wrong. He nodded before he went upstairs.

He slowly went to the door and opened it. Looking into the room, Ghost saw Ivy laying in the bed and slowly approached her. "Ivory?" His voice was quiet so he wouldn't startle her. Ivy looked up at him and attempted to sit up. Ghost placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. "Don't sit up, love." He kneeled by the side of the bed and grabbed her hand. Looking at her, he realized Rudy was right. What were once bright eyes, were now tired and bloodshot. Her cheeks were sunken in slightly. Her skin looked pale now, her hair messy and dry. There was a cut on her once soft lips, and bruises above her right eyebrow and along her hairline. He looked at her thinner arms and they were covered in bruises and burns. Ghost's heart ached for her, but his chest was full of fury. Tears slowly started to fill his eyes, "I'm so sorry baby... I shouldn't have let you agree to the mission." His voice was full of regret. Ivy squeezed his hand, "I agreed to it. And you're not my boss." Ivy weakly smiled. Ghost chuckled quietly. He gently began rubbing her head "What am I gonna do with you?"

Valeria and Rudy called the rest of the team into the living room while Ghost was with Ivy. Soap, Alejandro, Gaz and Price all came in one by one. "Price what's the status on Graves?" Valeria asked coldly. "After we searched the rest of the house we found a bunker with tunnels under a fake floor. I have teams all over Europe looking for him." "How's Ivy?" Gaz asked looking at Rudy and Valeria. Rudy sighed, "She's a fighter she'll pull through. They beat her pretty badly. Truthfully I don't know how she's still alive." Valeria spoke quietly, "He assaulted her." "What?" Alejandro's voice was angry. "Multiple times." Rudy's voice matched Alejandro's. Soap's face dropped, "Fuck..." Price put his hand over his mouth, "does Ghost know?" "If he did do you think he'd still be here?" Gaz 's voice was louder than he intended. Price moved to go upstairs, "he needs to know." Gaz pulled him back. "Give them a minute. They haven't seen each other in almost 3 weeks." "Graves needs to fuckin' pay for what he done," Soaps accent was thicker, "all hell is gonna break loose once Lt. finds out, so we need a plan, a damn good plan." "I'll get on it." Price said harshly as he walked away. Soap followed him as the team talked quietly about what to do.

Soap approached Price as he was fidgeting with papers in his hands, "Price..." "Not now Soap." "it's not your fault." "Soap I said not now!" "Price!" soap grabbed Price by the vest, "It's. Not. Your. Fault." Soap said slowly as his eyes began to leak. "It was my job to protect the kid and look where she is." "That doesn't put it on you. It's no one's fault but that bastard Graves'." "SIMON may see it that way but GHOST isn't." "Lt. isn't going to blame you. He knows you wouldn't do anything to harm her." Price nodded as he tried to catch his breath.